Vincent motorcycles

Anyone have one or ever owned one? I'm think they are one of the sweetest bikes ever built. I would love to see a Vincent chopper.

 

you don't ever chop a vinnie ,they were built just up the road from me in stevenage herts England about 10 miles from where i live. And they are sweet and fast.......marq

 

The Easyrider Bonneville streamliner has two Black Shadow motors for power, does that count?

 

Yummy.....

 

took this in '98 just after it rolled onto its side at the top end....

 

Girl I went to school withs old man had a couple, even then I wanted one...... need to win the lotto now, HRD/Vincent are the business, seem to remember seeing Elgi framed one on the Isle of Mann at the TT years ago (hell you get to see everything at the TT).

 

There back, but about 20 grand for one.
Vincent

 

i bought a 57 in may 2000 at a cycle auction because it was sitting at 10 thousand and cheap!!1 then i sold it at another sale here in mpls for a hell of a profit ,i still stare at the wall because the bike was so cool but i let it go for more bucks ,and now you cant touch a 53 to 57 for 35 thousand

 

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I would love to see a Vincent chopper.

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Oh Man! Bad kharma! Simply uttering these words together could have you hit by lightning! Or, grow huge double D's while you sleep!

 

Anyone can restore one, but it takes real balls to chop one up!!!!

 

one of the guys from redneck eng. in south carolina is chopping one. it was to far gone to restore and he wanted to use it for something other than parts. it's a ballsy move for sure. i shudder to think of one getting chopped but then want to see it all at the same time. can't see one getting any cooler than they already are. beautiful to say the least...ken....

 

They are only back in name.......
At 20k I think I would be into a kustom framed Ducati from one of the bad **** little Euro manufacturers.

 

Choppers!

 

Heres another and a link to the site these pics are from.

Vincent

 

Vincent....I'll have one in Black please........



Gloss black.

 

With a touch of salt.

Cheers,

Drewfus

 

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Anyone have one or ever owned one? I'm think they are one of the sweetest bikes ever built. I would love to see a Vincent chopper.

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Oh, you just HAD to say the 'V' word. Have some sensitivity man! The only reason I ride a Beezer is because I can AFFORD a Vincent. LOL Well maybe not the only reason. I really like the chrome too.

 

Rollie Free topping the 150 mph mark @ Bonneville, circa ~1950, on what is possibly the most famous Vincent of all time...

 

Never owned one. There was a collector that had a place in South Bay in the 80s. I went in with the ol' man to take a look. He had a Black Shadow and said if I could get it started I could take it a spin.
It started and I got a ride. What a rush, I had to clean the piddle off the seat when I got back.

 

Last one I rode sold for three grand in about 1988, a nice bike but pretty rattely, unrestored. A C Rapide.
They are good bikes, fun to ride. They are only about as big as an RD 250, same wheelbase and seat height. But with that nice big motor.
They are geared real high, lots of torque.
Who ever built the chopper is kissin a lot of money goodbye, no Vincent is too far gone to restore.
One night when my daughter was in her skinhead phase, a walking ****nal, a guy in the coffee shop told her his dad had a "Vincent Black Widow"
She said, "No way dude, Black Shadow, Rapide, and a few Black Lightenings. You're fulla ****"
He wouldn't admit he was wrong so he got the iron Doc Martin.
Poor guy.

 

Speak of the devil...here's on on UK eBay:

eBay Vincent

 

Ernie
That one is up to 15,000 with that little squiggle (pound?).
How much is that in American?

 

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Anyone can restore one, but it takes real balls to chop one up!!!!

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thats like kicking a hole in a 'pic***o' and then calling yourself an artist.

 

One pound equals about a buck 85.
Mart.

 

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That one is up to 15,000 with that little squiggle (pound?).


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You don't want to know...

...current exchange rate is running ~1.85:1, so £15K = $27,750!!

 

Bonneville effort from Minnesota. Doesn't someone here know the owner of this bike? Any results, yet?
Link to owner's web page

 

Yeah man that's Steve Hamel's bonneville machine. His goal is 100BHP at the rear wheel, not so easy with a push rod stock displcement motor
He's a complete Vincent engineering shop, everything from the cranks to the flow bench
He does my Triumph motors, when blueprinted by him they are 52 BHP instead of the stock 47 or so- 10% jump just by careful building.
A great shop, he works on Goldies, Norton Internationals, Velocettes too.
Not the Guilbranson radial sherman tank motor with the stub propellor in the background, fires it up once in a while.
A major world headquarters scene

 

[ QUOTE ]
Last one I rode sold for three grand in about 1988, a nice bike but pretty rattely, unrestored. A C Rapide.
They are good bikes, fun to ride. They are only about as big as an RD 250, same wheelbase and seat height. But with that nice big motor.
They are geared real high, lots of torque.
Who ever built the chopper is kissin a lot of money goodbye, no Vincent is too far gone to restore.
One night when my daughter was in her skinhead phase, a walking ****nal, a guy in the coffee shop told her his dad had a "Vincent Black Widow"
She said, "No way dude, Black Shadow, Rapide, and a few Black Lightenings. You're fulla ****"
He wouldn't admit he was wrong so he got the iron Doc Martin.
Poor guy.

[/ QUOTE ]

I LOVE that story man.

By the way, it's kinda hot when gals know about bikes. How old is your daughter now?

 

32 y arrijado
She quit bikes when her kid started school.
Any other veteranls remember the HRM feature on Clem Johnson's Vincent drag bike, "The Barn Job"?
I guess it still exists in LA but will never see the strip again, "too valuable to risk"

 

The Cl***ic Bike, a British mag, has a sidebar on Vincents in this month's ish (July).
The opener was a report of a Series A Rapide (pre-war) changing hands privately for $100,000 USD.
Pretty steep money for a motorcycle of any sort.
Next was a lament that Comets (the singles) are over £6,000
UKP ($11,100) and rising.
In April, at Stafford's auction, a box of bits said to be a '54 Black Shadow went for £13,800 UKP ($25,600). This for a basket case!!!
So for the person who would chop one of these, I'd say it is a bit like making a 'T' bucket kind of ride out of a Silver Ghost Roller; it could be done, but it would be mighty stupid, money-wise.
For the uninitiated, Vincent were built by the Howard R. Davies company (the HRD in the moniker) from about 1938 to 1955. The pre-war Series A were the first, natch, also the only to use a frame as such, and the only ones to have an included angle of 47 1/5º. The post-war Series B, C, and D (the fully faired Black Prince and Black Knight) all had no frame as such, and an included angle of 50º between cylinders.
That lack of a frame is what made the bike so impossibly small. The headstock bolted to the front head, the fuel tank bolted to that and the rear head, and the rear suspension (of a triangulated type quite similar to Yamaha's of the 70's), bolted to the rear of the engine unit. Specification of all was of the highest degree, with only a slight cheapening towards the end (on the D's).
Today's market forces many off the road due to worries of damage, much like the Brough Superior during the eighties.
Sadly I have not owned one, and will not in the foreseeable future due to my inability to see putting that much money into a motorcycle. Well, that and not having that much money, too.
Cosmo